Outpatient Surgical Facility Corrects Privacy Procedure in Research Recruitment Termination for Nurse HIPAA Violation Upheld by Court The case was settled for $15,000. All Case Examples. The case was settled with OCR for $300,640. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, including mitigation of harm to the complainant, OCR required the Center to revise its procedures regarding patient authorization prior to release of protected health information to an employer. Hackers used a compromised username and password to gain access to a server that contained the protected health information (PHI) of 3.5 million individuals. Memorial Healthcare Systems has paid the penalty for non-compliance with HIPAA Rules, and in addition to the $5.5 million settlement, a robust corrective action plan must be adopted to address all areas of non-compliance. Issue: Safeguards. Read More, Wise Psychiatry is a small provider of psychiatric services in Colorado. In fact, even a competent healthcare facility will experience minor HIPAA violation cases at some point. Read More, Idaho State Universitys Pocatello Family Medicine Clinic disabled the firewall that was protecting a server containing the medical health records of 17,500 patients. The HIPAA Right of Access violation was settled with OCR for $32,150. Read More, An investigation into Anthem Incs massive 78.8 million-record data breach of 2015 revealed multiple HIPAA violations. Technical assistance had previously been provided by OCR, but devices had still not been encrypted. Private Practice Revises Process to Provide Access to Records Regardless of Payment Source An OCR investigation indicated that the form the HMO relied on to make the disclosure was not a valid authorization under the Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Journal is the leading provider of news, updates, and independent advice for HIPAA compliance. Not necessary. If a nurse violates HIPAA, a patient cannot sue the nurse for a HIPAA violation. This was OCRs first settlement under the 2019 HIPAA Right of Access enforcement initiative. In 2017, Lifespan mentioned in a news release that someone broke into an employee vehicle and stole their work laptop. Read More, OCR launched an investigation of University of Rochester Medical Center following receipt of two breach reports concerning lost/stolen portable devices containing ePHI a flash drive and a laptop computer. OCR attempted to resolve the matter via informal means between November 6, 2015, to August 30, 2016, before issuing a Notice of Proposed Determination on September 30, 2016. A study found that the average person spends about 52 minutes per day engaging in this type of conversation. Issue: Impermissible Disclosure-Research. Covered Entity: Private Practice There are four tiers of HIPAA violation penalties for nurses, ranging from unknowing violations to willful neglect of HIPAA Rules. OCR determined there had been risk analysis failures, insufficient reviews of system activity, a failure to respond adequately to a detected breach, and insufficient technical controls to prevent unauthorized ePHI access. Read More, Office for Civil Rights has agreed to its largest-ever financial penalty for a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Acts Privacy and Security Rules. A settlement of $85,000 was agreed upon to resolve the violation. OCR received two complaints from patients in 2019 alleging they had to wait several months to receive a copy of their medical records. The case was ultimately unsuccessful; the court ruled in favor of the nurse. Read More, Coastal Ear, Nose, and Throat in Florida received a request from a patient for a copy of medical records on December 15, 2020, and again on January 8, 2021, but the records were not provided until May 20, 2021. OCR imposed a civil monetary penalty of $100,000. > For Professionals Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN) has agreed to pay OCR $400,000 and adopt a robust corrective action plan to resolve all HIPAA compliance issues identified during the OCR investigation. CardioNet is a Pennsylvania-based provider of remote mobile monitoring and rapid response services to patients at risk for cardiac arrhythmias. 1. OCR also discovered a business associate failure. Therefore, it . OCR investigated and found multiple potential HIPAA violations such as the failure to conduct a thorough risk analysis, risk management failures, and insufficient mechanisms to identify suspicious network activity. Read More, Hillcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation in Massachusetts received a request from a parent for her sons medical records onMarch 22, 2020, but the records were not provided until October 10, 2020. The Paubox team exported all reported incidents from HHS's official Breach Portal from January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019 and used the data to compile the following summary. Top 15 Celebrity HIPAA Fails, Violations & Their Consequences OCR's investigation confirmed that the use and disclosure of protected health information by the supervisor was not authorized by the employee and was not otherwise permitted by the Privacy Rule. The data breach exposed the Protected Health Information of 55,000 patients. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Safeguards. However, as violations of HIPAA are so severe, then CEs will choose to terminate the . Read more, Ridgewood, NJ-based Village Plastic Surgeryfailed to provide a patient with timely access to the requested medical records. A complaint alleged that an HMO impermissibly disclosed a members PHI, when it sent her entire medical record to a disability insurance company without her authorization. OCR determined there had been a risk analysis failure, access control failure, information system activity monitoring failure, and an impermissible disclosure of 6,617 patients ePHI. The case was settled for $3 million. A violation due to willful neglect which is corrected within thirty days will attract a fine of between $10,000 and $50,000. The nurse in question sent out six text messages to warn the patient's girlfriend about his STD. Read More, OCR has announced a $5.5 million settlement had been reached with Florida-based Memorial Healthcare Systems to resolve potential Privacy Rule and Security Rule violations. OCRs investigators identified a risk analysis failure, a lack of reviews of system activity, a failure to verify identity for access to PHI, and insufficient technical safeguards. Mental Health Center Corrects Process for Providing Notice of Privacy Practices Dentist Revises Process to Safeguard Medical Alert PHI There may be a viable claim, in some cases, under state privacy laws. In many cases, records were only provided after OCR intervened. The office informed all its employees of the incident and counseled staff on proper faxing procedures. To resolve this matter to the satisfaction of OCR, the hospital: retrained an entire Department with regard to the requirements of the Privacy Rule; provided additional specific training to staff members whose job duties included leaving messages for patients; and, revised the Departments patient privacy policy to clarify patient rights to accommodation of reasonable requests to receive communications of PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. Read More, Mountlake Terrace, WA-based Premera Blue Cross is the largest health plan in the Pacific Northwest. A pharmacy employee placed a customer's insurance card in another customer's prescription bag. In April 2019, OCR reexamined the HITECH Act and determined the language had been misinterpreted and issued a Notice of Enforcement Discretion stating the maximum annual penalties in each penalty tier would be changed to reflect the seriousness of the violations. The case was settled for $1,250,000. Issue: Access, A patient alleged that a covered entity failed to provide him access to his medical records. The device was not password-protected, and the personal information of over 20,000 patients wasn't encrypted. The possibility of HIPAA lawsuits brought forth by patients and breach victims could change HIPAA enforcement. In April, nurses on the night shift at Denver Health Medical Center were caught making inappropriate comments about a male patient's genitalia, according to a report from the Colorado Department. For example, texting or calling a coworker to ask about a shared patient's case would be a HIPAA violation. A municipal social service agency disclosed protected health information while processing Medicaid applications by sending consolidated data to computer vendors that were not business associates. Covered Entity: Private Practices Read More, Catholic Health Care Services of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has agreed to settle alleged HIPAA violations with the OCR and implement a Corrective Action Plan (CAP). Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required the provider to develop and implement policies and procedures regarding appropriate administrative and physical safeguards related to the communication of PHI. Providence Health & Services. One addressed the issue of minimum necessary information in telephone message content. A good example of this is a laptop that is stolen. Issue: Impermissible Uses and Disclosures; Business Associates. OCR intervened and closed the case but received a second complaint 6 months after the first stating the records had still not been provided. Read More, Office for Civil Rights has announced a settlement of $1,215,780 has been reached with Affinity Health Plan, Inc., to resolve potential HIPAA violations discovered during a breach investigation. Among other actions taken to satisfactorily resolve this matter, the hospital took further disciplinary action with the nurse, which included: documenting the employee record with a memo of the incident; one year probation; referral for peer review; and further training on HIPAA Privacy. Clinic Sanctions Supervisor for Accessing Employee Medical Record OCR discovered risk analysis failures, a lack of policies covering electronic devices, a lack of encryption or alternative safeguards, insufficient security policies, and insufficient physical safeguards, resulting in an impermissible disclosure of 521 individuals PHI. The OCR investigation determined 577 patients had been affected, but Sentara Hospitals refused to update its breach notice to reflect the correct number of patients affected. In more servers cases, or where multiple violations have occurred, the nurse may lose their job. HIPAA Fails Kim Kardashian In 2013, medical employees decided to "Keep Up With The Kardashians," and it cost them their jobs. QCA Health Plan has agreed to settle the HIPAA violations with OCR for $250,000. The Center did not, however, provide the complainant with the opportunity to have the denial reviewed, as required by the Privacy Rule. The case was settled for $100,000. In nursing education, a HIPAA violation made by a nursing student could result in a variety of disciplinary actions including termination but is rarely discussed in nursing literature. OCR intervened and provided technical assistance on the HIPAA Right of Access but received a second complaint when the practice continued to deny him access. The default security settings were left in place, which allowed any individual with an Internet connection to gain access to the ePHI in the files. Nurse Faced with Jail Time for Violating HIPAA Laws Without appropriate HIPAA training, this case of a HIPAA violation demonstrates how critical it is to train workers before there is an issue. Read More, Phoenix, AZ-based Banner Health is one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Private Practice Implements Safeguards for Waiting Rooms The Phoenix, Arizona-based non-profit health system, Banner Health, experienced a hacking incident that resulted in the impermissible disclosure of the PHI of 2.81 million individuals in 2016. OCR determined there had been a risk analysis failure and the case was settled for $100,000. This was the case in 2019, when a number of healthcare professionals accessed a particular actor's medical records after the actor was part of a potential hoax hate-crime, which became headline news. Read More, Lawrence Bell, Jr. D.D.S in Maryland failed to provide a patient with timely access to the requested medical records. Numbers at a Glance - Current | HHS.gov Read more, San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare, dba Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Centers, failed to provide a patients medical records to a patient-specified third party for more than 2 months. HIPAA violations don't just occur when a nurse posts something of their own accord. Now add up that time for a week, a month, or even a year. Health Plan Corrects Impermissible Disclosure of PHI through Training, Mitigation, and Sanctions Disastrous HIPAA Violation Cases | 7 Cases to Learn From The OCR investigation revealed a lack of business associate agreements, insufficient access rights, a risk analysis failure, a failure to respond to a security incident, a breach notification failure, media notification failure. CHCS failed to perform a comprehensive risk analysis since September 23, 2013. OCR determined the lack of encryption was in violation of the HIPAA Security Rule, there were insufficient device and media controls, and a business associate agreement had not been entered into with its parent company. The new authorization specifies what records and/or portions of the files will be disclosed and the respective authorization will be kept in the patients record, together with the disclosed information. Read More, Elite Primary Care is a provider of primary health services in Georgia. For one violation, fines can range from $100-$50,000 for each instance of wrongdoing. Hospital workers disciplined for viewing patients' genitals | CNN However, up to 500 cases per year result in a fine and/or corrective action being required. Nurse Pleads Guilty to HIPAA Violation | NurseZone - American Mobile A national health maintenance organization sent explanation of benefits (EOB) by mail to a complainant's unauthorized family member. A complaint alleged that an HMO impermissibly disclosed a member's PHI, when it sent her entire medical record to a disability insurance company without her authorization. Public Hospital Corrects Impermissible Disclosure of PHI in Response to a Subpoena Former NY Hospital Employee Charged with HIPAA Violation These cases include civil monetary penalties, where it has been established that HIPAA Rules have been violated, and settlements, where HIPAA violations have been alleged to have occurred but the covered entity or business associate has decided not to contest the case and has instead chosen to pay a financial penalty to resolve the potential HIPAA violations with no admission of liability. What is a HIPAA violation? 26 HIPAA violation examples - Alleva Disciplinary action taken by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Contrary to the Privacy Rule protections for information sought for administrative or judicial proceedings, the hospital failed to determine that reasonable efforts had been made to insure that the individual whose PHI was being sought received notice of the request and/or failed to receive satisfactory assurance that the party seeking the information made reasonable efforts to secure a qualified protective order. What Happens if a Nurse Violates HIPAA? Updated for 2023 - HIPAA Journal Read More, The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has announced that Childrens Medical Center of Dallas has paid a civil monetary penalty of $3.2 million to resolve multiple HIPAA violations spanning several years. Memphis Commercial Appeal. Even though it is not done maliciously. Read More, Steven A. Porter, M.D.s gastroenterological practice in Ogden, UT reported a breach to OCR involving a medical record company that was blocking access to patients ePHI until a bill was paid. Jail Nursing: No Deliberate Detailed below is a summary of all HIPAA violation cases that have resulted in settlements with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), including cases that have been pursued by OCR after potential HIPAA violations were discovered during data breach investigations, and investigations of complaints submitted by patients and healthcare employees. $("#wpforms-form-28602 .wpforms-submit-container").appendTo(".submit-placement"); The Ultimate List of Celebrity HIPAA Violations Etactics The data breach investigation revealed a substandard security management process and a catalog of HIPAA Security Rule violations. HHS Had software patches been installed on the computers the malware would not have been unable to infect the PCs. Among other corrective actions to resolve the specific issues in the case, OCR required the hospital to develop and implement a policy regarding disclosures related to serious threats to health and safety, and to train all members of the hospital staff on the new policy. September 05, 2017 - A Kentucky hospital was found to have acted lawfully when it fired a nurse for committing a HIPAA violation, according to the Kentucky Court of Appeals. HIPAA breaches in 2019: A year in review Entity Rescinds Improper Charges for Medical Record Copies to Reflect Reasonable, Cost-Based Fees An employee at a mid-size clinic was involved in a suit when an auto collision victim sued her spouse. Covered Entity: Health Plans "HIPAA applies to schools.".